At the present time, most of the commercially available personal care compositions are based on sulfate-containing surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate, (SLS), ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS), sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) or ammonium laureth sulfate (ALES). SLS, ALS, SLES and ALES are the most widespread sulfate-containing surfactants used in this field as they are inexpensive and as they exhibit at the same time satisfactory cleansing and foaming properties.
However personal care compositions including sulfate-containing surfactants present also significant drawbacks. As a matter of fact sulfate-containing surfactants such as SLS are known to be liable to give rise to tolerance problems, especially on the skin and the eyes. Another drawback of sulfate-containing surfactants is their tendency to strip the skin, scalp or hair of its natural oils, fats or proteins contained at their surface. In the long term the repeated use of personal care compositions including sulfate-containing surfactants may therefore cause irritation to the skin or scalp and/or give damage on hair fibers.
In recent times there is thus an increasing demand for personal care compositions including safe, environment friendly, and/or milder surfactants, and especially for personal care compositions free of sulfate-containing surfactants.
One of the major challenges of formulating sulfate-free personal care compositions lies in the need to maintain mildness, satisfactory cleansing, conditioning and foaming properties without negatively impacting viscosity of the overall composition.